Stagflation, Crisis, and ¿Recovery? Interpretations of Argentina's Recent Economic Behavior

Abstract

One of the few consequences that reality imposes on domestic politics in Argentina is that, for more than a decade, the country has been immersed in a profound economic, financial, and social crisis. But disagreements arise when it comes to characterizing its origins and possible solutions. While popular forces view the crisis from the perspective of underconsumption, the liberal characterizes it as a crisis of local wage pressure. Meanwhile, the far-right extremism, which will come to power at the end of 2023, characterizes it as part of a global crisis of recovery of the profit rate of western transnational capitalism. Using a Marxist theoretical framework, this article analyzes the crisis through the behavior of the profit rate of the largest companies operating in Argentina, and its decomposition, to empirically evaluate the consistency of the characterizations, and proposals, made by the dominant political forces in the country.